At the Conference on Canadian Content in
Speculative Arts and Literature in Ottawa this weekend, the media guests of
honour were Ed the Sock and Liana K, known, of course, as Ed and Red. Knowing that Ed is never one to shy away from having a thing or two to say, I asked them about their take on the federal political scene during a Q&A session.
Ed the Sock: Oh, federally. What a mess. Talk
about a Sith Lord. Right now, Stephen Harper is like Darth Vader after they
blew up Alderaan.
Liana K: You think so?
E: No effective opposition.
L: That’s true.
E: The NDP right now are like the monkey
without the organ grinder. They don’t know what they’re going to do. Sad thing
– I knew Jack Layton, I liked Jack Layton, and before he got elected I said the
problem with the NDP is like in Ontario when they got elected: everyone voted
for Bob Rae because they liked him, and they got a bunch of crossing guards and
bus drivers coming in as MPPs in that case, which is fine. Those people can
learn, but they don’t know. You can’t go from asking for exact change to making
policy, so good luck to the NDP as opposition – Harper’s going to steamroll
right over them.
L: I’m just kind of sick of this move of
being like other countries. I’m getting annoyed – hanging the Queen’s portrait
and returning the “royal” because we want to be Britain. And then there was
something else that he put in this week because the Americans do it.
E: What was that? Bomb other countries?
L: No, he did that just fine. But we have our own traditions and we have our
own country, and I’m getting a bit tired of there being something wrong with
that.
E: Well, to some, our traditions are
having a picture of the Queen everywhere, which is ridiculous because you know,
we were like that when we were a colony – we’re not a colony anymore. Why are
we taking giant steps backward to put up pictures of a dinosaur monarchy-thing in our public places? It’s ridiculous – enough of this crap!
L: I think it’s because Stephen Harper
realizes that people hate him.
E: Well no, if he thought that, he
wouldn’t try to call himself the “Harper government.”
L: Apparently that’s something that
happens in government unofficially all the time. A few friends of mine who work
in government say that this is nothing new – everyone does it. It’s the fact
that they lied about it that’s the scandal. It’s not going to be a scandal – it’s
going to go away. Nothing hurts this guy.
E: Stephen Harper can stand at the lip of
a volcano and start throwing people in as sacrifices, and he’d still get
elected with a majority.
L: Well it’s funny because I was about to
use a similar metaphor – every time Stephen Harper does something good, it’s like Darth Vader body-slamming
Palpatine at the end of Return of the Jedi.
Why you can trust Xtra
